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Although long recognized as a serious problem, many of the issues encountered in assuring the
quality of computer programs have only received the level of attention they deserve in the last
decade.

For example, the first conference devoted to quality assurance was held in Chapel Hill, North
Carolina, in June 1972. This conference led to the publication of a book, Program Test Methods,
that served to isolate some of the key problems of quality assurance.' From that milestone event
there appeared to grow a number of technical projects and activities which in aggregrate
produced a substantial technical literature dealing with software quality assurance primarily
through systematic testings Much work was also done based on the "opposite" approach --
i.e.,formal program proofs of correctness. That work also led to significant developments and
results, many of which are still being reported.3 4 Many of the results from the program proving
arena are very promising, but they have not had as much practical application as the more
down-to-earth and direct techniques of testing-oriented quality assurance.

For readers who wish some background on quality assurance it is possible to cite a number of
items and/or events that are worth looking into for source material. For example, the April 1977
issue of Computer was devoted specifically to software testing methodologies.5 Some excellent
papers are in the InfoTech report on software testing.6 The excellent series edited by Prof.
Raymond T. Yeh includes a volume devoted to program validations and there is a new book by
author/lecturer Glenford J. Meyers devoted to software testing methods.8 Technical backup for
modern quality assurance is provided in a current IEEE Computer Society collection of reprints
focusing on software testing and validation methods.9 More recently, a workshop on software
testing and test documentation was held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (December 1978),1 which
led to the development of some of the papers in this special issue.

The six papers included in this issue form a crosssection of software quality assurance methods
that ranges from detailed design of critical systems, to establishment of IEEE Computer Society
proposed standards for software quality assurance procedures.